Ant Financial IPO Put on Back Burner (Again)

It may be years before an Ant Financial IPO

It looks like we still won’t be seeing an Ant Financial IPO in the near future.

Source: Shutterstock

There were expectations for an Ant Financial IPO sometime in 2018. However, the company has been facing additional issues that have resulted in plans for a 2018 IPO to be delayed. This isn’t the first time that an Ant Financial IPO has been in the talks.

The problems that are pushing back the Ant Financial IPO this time around have to do with a couple of different things. The first is that the company has been reporting losses lately. This was revealed during Alibaba’s (NYSE:BABA) earnings report for the first quarter of 2018.

Another issue that is holding back the Ant Financial IPO is pressure from Chinese regulators. Ant Financial isn’t a typical banking company and isn’t owned by the state. Beijing in particular has been scrutinizing the company more recently for these reasons.

So when exactly can we expect an Ant Financial IPO? Honestly, no one knows. Some sources claim that it would be unlikely to see one before the end of 2019. Others claim it is still years away. Either way, the current news of the IPO being pushed back isn’t surprising one analyst, who said they expected as much, reports Financial Times.

Despite news of the Ant Financial IPO being pushed back, BABA stock is still up 2% as of Monday afternoon. The company is also preparing to release its earnings report for the second quarter of 2018 later this week.

As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.